When visiting the Columbia River Gorge photographing the waterfalls and other beautiful scenes from the the area are a must. Since hiking is the main transportation mode to reach these photogenic areas, weight and bulk was a concern. I want to share with you what I used and didn't use. Save yourself a lot of trouble and keep reading.

I took a Sony a7Rii with the Batis 18mm and the Sony a7 with Batis 85mm. Extremes. The 18mm was perfect for all but a few waterfalls. The 85mm was awesome for the few waterfalls the 18mm didn't cover and I used the 85mm for the Gorge shots in Oneota Falls and looking down the actual Columbia River Gorge. I also used the 85mm for family candid shots.

I took a 25mm lens and wish I had left it behind. The main draw from the Sony bodies were picture quality and light weight. The reason for the Batis lenses were photo quality and light weight. The downside to the Batis lenses are on the large size physically. In the end, weight won out and I was pleased with my decision to take them.

You do not want to be uncoupling lenses from camera bodies once you enter the gorge. With all the fog, spray, etc., you don't want to take a chance getting your sensor dirty. This is why I carried two cameras. Plus, I didn't want to travel across the country and have a camera fail during a hike and ruin my hard work for the day. You are close to Portland but they don't deliver to the trail while you are standing in snow melt water getting that memory.​

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What we found was the Mitakon Speedmaster was the sharpest in the center within the fast group. The Canon was sharpest in the corner from the fast group. When looking at all five lenses as one group, we believe the Leica is the sharpest both at the center and the corner.

Watch the video and let us know how you believe we interpreted the results. We want your opinion.

Download the RAW files at the bottom of this post. I had to split the files into three folders to keep each ZIPed folder under 250mb each.

Download the RAW files at the link below. The file numbers and apertures are here for your reference.

The lens is soft wide open at 1.1 but this is not really a surprise. Most big aperture lenses are soft wide open, this lens is a little more soft wide open than you will see with a Zeiss, Leica, or Canon. It is a compact, light weight lens that offers big aperture for little money (relatively speaking). The focus through has a little bit of play in when switching directions with the focus ring. It is enough for me to notice but not enough for me to be angry about (see low price above).

All in all, it delivers good images in most situations and would make a great first fast 50mm for those who are not afraid of manual focus. If you already own a Voigtlander Nokton or Mitakon (Zhongyi) Speedmaster 0.95/50mm, you don't need to trade your lens in. I would take both of those lenses over the 7artisans.

This shot was taken in our basement in very tight quarters. We used the Sony a7Rii and Zeiss Loxia 2.8/21mm for it's wide angle and low distortion qualities. A continuous LED light source was used to light the car.

My name is Averiella Barger and I have a Fuji Instax Mini 8 camera. What I like about this camera is unique about it, is that whenever you take the picture it pops right out and you have it instantly. And I think it's cool because it shows us what other, our grandparents had back in the decades, so. Well, this camera comes with itself and you can buy other accessories with it but the first accessory I would prefer you buy would be a case.

And this is the Fuji Instax Mini 8 case and it goes, it slips right in. And it's leather and has like, so. This camera also you could buy for it is lenses. I would recommend the colorful ones cause you cannot just take a regular picture. You can take it in color. And so you can get red, blue, yellow, and green. And unlike most cameras, it's hard to take a selfie. So the Instax people made a selfie one. And this lens has a mirror and it comes in a bunny rabbit and it comes in all different colors. And so, you pop this on and then it clicks in. I have it on backwards but regularly it would go on this side. And you can take a picture and you look into the mirror. And the lens has it right here and then you have your selfie.

Some photos I have taken is with one of the colorful lenses and one of those lenses was green. And I took the picture of my front yard. And it comes out really clear and only takes like a couple of seconds to develop and then I also have some selfies I took with the bunny rabbit. This one's in dark and so is this one. I have my room lights on. So these are two selfies of me.

I think it's really cute, it's really popular, and I really like how it prints it out and it has really good perceptions. And the pictures are clear. And it's just really neat. And I like being able, like, to push that button. And it has really great flashes. It has outdoor flashes, sunny flashes, and in the house flashes. It also has hi-def. I wanted the camera because first off, I've seen a lot of girls at my school have these cameras and I thought, "hey that's really cool. It prints the picture." and they are like really popular, really cute, and if you guys didn't notice they come in different colors. And I thought that most cameras come in silver or black. They don't have a lot of options. I chose white because I just like white but they come in pink, blue, yellow. And they come in like green, orange, so they really neat and I thought they have pretty good lens protection and their flash is neat and it's easy and it's portable and you don't have to change the lenses like on a regular camera. It doesn't really come off. You just pop one on and go.

​I also really like the camera. I can capture memories of my friends and family and anybody you want. And not only can I give it to them automatically, I can keep one myself. Thank you for watching this video and hope you enjoy it and soon have a Polaroid of your own.

Sample RAW images from the Loxia 2.4/85mm and Sony a7ii can be downloaded at the bottom of this article.

This is the Loxia 85mm f/2.4 lens. This lens is a stellar performer, top notch. Performs as good if not better than the Loxia 21mm which I think is an excellent lens. It's probably one of the best lenses I own for the Sony E mount. Here are some thoughts on the lens. Wide open at f/2.4 there's some slight vignetting. Nothing, nothing major. The distortion in my opinion is almost virtually unnoticeable. There are no lens correction profiles yet in LightRoom or Capture One Pro for Sony that I've seen come through.

The de-clicking of the aperture ring is nice. If you shoot video this is a big plus to me. The manual focus throw is a big plus. The manual focus through is not fly-by-wire. It's mechanical so you know exactly what to expect when you use it.

This also fits in this configuration, lens down, lens hood mounted on just like normal, camera down on an a7ii in a Hadley Small. And it's about a quarter inch too tall but that's ok because the Hadley has a top flap, a top padded flap that comes down. The bokeh is nice. I wouldn't say it's the best in the world. It's definitely not Batis 1.8 or Gold Master 1.4.

​I recently traveled to the Columbia River Gorge and I took the Batis line. I took the 18, 25, and 85. I feel like that if I had the Loxia 85 I probably would have opted for the Loxia 85 because my backpack, I had a Flipside 10 liter backpack. So it was a very small pack I had. The Loxia would have allowed me a little bit more room. The 85 made things tight.

We have done some shots in studio and it shoots well in studio. You don't have Eye Autofocus but you do have focus magnification and peaking. From a photo point-of-view, maybe not the first lens you grab in the 85mm focal length. I feel like the Loxia fills a niche and it's just that, it’s a niche.

It feels good on the camera. It focuses well. I love the manual focus. The aperture ring could be a little thicker. I think before in earlier videos I said it didn't bother me. It could have been a little wider. That would have been nice.

Besides that, it's another good lens by Zeiss but I don't feel like there is going to be a horde of people looking for a slower 85mm lens. If you are looking at an 85mm focal length, you have to ask yourself a few questions. Are you ready for an all manual focus lens? Do you want to give up Eye Autofocus? Do you video? Do you do serious video? How important is weight? So there are a lot of factors that go into is this lens right for you. Only you can answer that. And at $1400 it has a hefty price tag. But what Sony lens these days doesn't have a hefty price tag.

Let us know what you think about the Loxia 2.4/85 below and how you see it being recieved.